What essentials and non essentials have you stopped buying?

[fateisdestined2025]

Essentials will soon be bread…will try to make homemade bread…

non essentials will be unhealthy snacks like chocolate and cakes, air freshener, furniture polish and other cleaning products.

Oh, interesting - we use own brand very strong white or wholemeal and it's £1.30 for 1.5kg or 1.80 for 1kg if you go organic.

@MyTommyGunDont I do remember though that we started out using hand-crushed organic golden rye or something which I imagine is a lot more expensive 😆

I switched to bath foam or bubble bath as it's cheaper per ml than handwash, or bulk buy hand wash or shower gel from Amazon.

I love using bar soap for hand washing but my family seem to make such a mess with it, god knows how.

I stopped buying cleaning wipes, wet wipes etc and use the reusable blue cloths for cleaning and face cloths for hands and face.

I bought some smaller thinner bamboo face cloths and take them dampened and in a zip lock bag in my handbag if we're going out for the day.

Single use plastic food bags- I use reusable containers instead.
Bags of ice, I decant ice cube trays into a container in the freezer.

I couldn't agree with you more @FatherFrosty in fact the owner of the bakery owns the karate Dojo that my DS goes to.
So I do occasionally buy bakery bread but I've cut back from it being a weekly part of my shop.
I have many mouths to feed, and bread is a go-to quick and easy meal, being so versatile as it is, and therefore goes down so quickly.
I would love to return to buying organic and hormone free meat at a butcher as I used to do but that just isn't an option anymore unfortunately.

I know. I completely understand. I don’t buy whole chickens at the butchers they are £10-£15. And whilst I appreciate they should cost that for an animal to have had a better life, its the very least they deserve.
morally it’s very hard isn’t it.

I'm the same @FatherFrosty .
I've never in my life taken lightly the conditions and methods in which an animal goes from processing to plate.
Like you, I feel it's the least we can do, to pay extra for optimum conditions for the animals.
My response has been to buy much less meat which does save quite a bit, economically, and has reignited my interest in bringing meat-free meals to the family table.
It involves much research as well as having to substitute some ingredients, but I feel good about it, and finally DH has been more accepting of having meat-free meals, and the DCs are more than okay with it.

I've replaced olive oil with rapeseed oil.

No longer buy expensive coffee - I'm caffeine free now and cheap decaf is fine black.

Lots of things I only buy on offer - HP sauce (so expensive!!!!), Higgidy quiches, Mutti tomatoes. None of those are 'essentials' but they're the brands I like.

We also eat a lot less meat than we used to and rarely eat fish.

Nowt. Life’s too short to knit your own yogurt. If I could, I’d live on M&S deli foods and the occasional fish and chips. And have a cleaner and send my laundry out. I just can’t be faffed with any sort of baking. The mess, the cleaning… used to do it but now, no.

I bake all of our bread products since cultivating a sourdough starter over a year ago. I do it for fun not cost, although it saves a lot of money.

I use strong white flour from Lidl. It costs £1.09 and will make 3 loaves. I make sourdough so the only other ingredients are my starter, water and salt.

We've completely stopped using fabric conditioner. It felt like literal money down the drain and it gunks up washing machines anyway.

Like others, we eat a lot less meat. Most of our meals are vegetarian so although I still buy meat, I definitely buy less. I've done the weekly shop today and have bought a pack of diced chicken and a packet of ham trimmings but that's the only meat on the food shop for our family of four.

Meals out are now for birthdays and special occasions rather than "just because."

I stopped buying cotton wool and things like makeup wipes for environmental reasons. I bought a pack of bamboo cotton rounds and a pack of flannels for washing faces/taking off makeup.

I don't get my nails done anymore. It was £40 every three weeks! I just keep them filed and buffed and occasionally paint on some clear polish. They look fine!

We don't use fabric conditioner - towels do a lot more drying without it, though I do miss the softness!

I've always tried to be relatively careful but the older I get the more annoyed I am by it. I don't eat a lot of meat so it makes sense to buy the higher welfare stuff.

Like the poster up thread I would much rather just get nice things from M&S and outsource all the drudgery but I can't.

Less takeaways, meals out and coffee out. less extravagant Christmas and birthdays, less meat and alcohol. I've just moved from tinned pulses to dried. Have stated modestly growing food.
I give away things and take things on olio.
I try to wear my clothing until worn, then use them for rags.
If I have an event I need to buy a new outfit for i ensure i can rewear it.
I've joined the gym insted of going to food/ drink establishments multiple times a week. Stated using the libuary again.

Oh, I've stopped takeaway coffee. I've got a flask. It's a stupid amount of coffee and genuinely not much better than what I can make for myself at home if I take the time.

I'm trying to do the same. I don't mind paying for good coffee in a nice hipster coffee shop, but I really object to paying nearly a fiver for shit coffee in Costa, Pret etc.

70p bath foam from sainsburys for a big bottle!

I agree.

The Aldi magnum dishwashigg by liquid in ‘original’ is the same as fairy for me. Everything else is like water.

I second this. I use it to top up my fairy squeezy bottle. I also buy their cheapest liquid to use for stuff that doesn’t quite need the good stuff.

Wipes.
polish, i just use hot soapy water & a cloth.
jar sauces, i just make my own.
meals out, takeaways.
chocolate & snacks. Just bake some on the weekend with the kids, refuse to pay £4-5 for a share bag that cost £1 6 years ago!

Everything costs a arm & a leg these days.

Vinegar and bi carb for cleaning and for the rinse……
Mych less meat, maybe twice a week, rekindled a love for lambs’ liver and bacon although the liver had gone up over a pound since I last bought it.
No chocolate or biscuits… didn’t need those anyway and now don’t miss them. Always buy sourdough multi grain in the reduced section and now foamy white bread just seems wrong.
99p toothpaste from Aldi as I realised my teeth looked no different when I used one that was £3.50, I do floss and pic though.
Always used own brands anyway as they are no different and sometimes much better than branded ( £. 3.50 for beans and sausages) nah I don’t think so….